Evaluation of multi-scale full waveform inversion with marine vertical cable data

Abstract

Seismic illumination plays an important role in subsurface imaging. A better image can be expected either through optimizing acquisition geometry or introducing more advanced seismic migration and/or tomographic inversion methods involving illumination compensation. Vertical cable survey is a potential replacement of traditional marine seismic survey for its flexibility and data quality. Conventional vertical cable data processing requires separation of primaries and multiples before migration. We proposed to use multi-scale full waveform inversion (FWI) to improve illumination coverage of vertical cable survey. A deep water velocity model is built to test the capability of multi-scale FWI in detecting low velocity anomalies below seabed. Synthetic results show that multi-scale FWI is an effective model building tool in deep-water exploration. Geometry optimization through target oriented illumination analysis and multi-scale FWI may help to mitigate the risks of vertical cable survey. The combination of multi-scale FWI, low-frequency data and multi-vertical-cable acquisition system may provide both high resolution and high fidelity subsurface models.